Switch-lock



(No Model.) 2 SheetsSheet 1.

G. W. HUNT 8v 0. 0. KING.

SWITCH LOCK.

No. 451,485. Patented May 5,1891.

(-No Mc1de1.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2. 0. W. HUNT & O. (1. KING.

SWITCH LOCK.

N0. 451,485. Patented May 5, 1891.

UNITED STATES PATENT ()FFICE.

CHARLES \V. HUNT AND CHARLES 0. KING, OF WEST NFHV BRIGHTON, NE\V YORK.

.SWlTCH-LOCK.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 451,485, dated May 5, 1891.

Application filed October 31, 1890. Serial No. 369,955. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

constructed with a bar connecting the two moving points of the switch, and this bar has received its endwise motion from a cylinder having inclined slots therein, and in someinstances such cylinder has been provided with cam-ribs or screw-threaded sections, and either the cylinder has been turned within a stationary case or the case has been turned around the screw-cylinder for giving end motion to the bar to move the switch.

Our present invention is especially adapted to apply a constant 'and nearly-uniform pressure to hold the switch in position; but in case of a train coming in the wrong direction for the switch the lock will yield and hold the rails in the changed position, thus lessening the risk of accident, and the switch is easily moved by hand.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view illustrating railway-tracks and the improved switch-lock therewith connected. Fig. 2 is a plan View, partially in section. Fig. 3 is an end view of the lock, and Fig. 4 represents the switch as adapted to wheels with flanges at the outer edges.

The track-rails A and switch-rails B are of ordinary character, and the switch-rails B are connected together by the crossbar C.

In Fig. 4 the track is represented as adapted to cars in which the flanges of the wheels come upon the outside of the rails; but with tracks in which the flanges of the wheels come between the rails, the switch-rails B are at the inner sides of the main rails A, as

represented in Fig. 1, our improved switchlock being adapted to either character of switch.

Upon cross-tie D is firmly secured the case E, and within the case E are screw-threaded grooves, and the cylinder F has screw-threads at such a pitch that a half-rotation or less of the cylinder F will give an end movement equal to the throw of the switch-bars, and the end of the cross-bar O that is connected with the switch-rails is connected to the cylinder in any suitable manner. Usually it passes axially into the screw-cylinder F, and is provided with a collar 4 and a nut 5, or its equivalent, a collar and key, so that the cylinder F is free to be rotated around the end of the cross-bar C, and this screw-cylinderF. is provided with a lever-handle G, extending out at one side thereof, and this lever-handle should be weighted to a greater or less extent, according to the power required to hold the switch in position. There may be a screw-thread on the bar 0 where it entersinto the cylinder F to connect the parts, the cylinder turning freely on such screw.

It will now be understood that when the lever-handle G is swung over from the position indicated by full lines to the position indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 2 the screwcylinder F is moved endwise within the case E by the action of the screw-threads upon the exterior of the cylinder F within the screwthreaded grooves of the case E, and this screwcylinder can be turned freely from one position to the other and, the resistance of the weighted lever-handle is sufficient to prevent. the switch moving under ordinary circumstances; but should a car come in the opposite direction to that for which the switch is set the flanges of the wheels, acting between the stationary track-rails A and switch-rails B, will move such switch-rails and give an end motion to the screw-cylinder F and throw over the lever-handle G from one position to the other as such cylinder is rotated by the action of the incline of the screw, and the switchman or attendant can change the switch with great facility either by his hand applied to the lever-handle G or by the foot.

WVe claim as our in vention The combination, with the switch-rails and cross-bar, of a cylinder connected with and turning freely on such cross-bar and having sereW-thremled projections 011 its exteriorsnrfor which the switch is set, snhstant ially as face, a case surrounding the cylinder loosely specified. l0 and having screw-threaded grooves receiving Signed by us thisilbth day of ()etober,1890.

the threads on the cylinder, and a Weighted CIIAS. \V. 'I'IUNI. 5 lever-handle extending out from the cylinder, CHAS. C. KING.

the cylinderbeing adaptedto rotate and throw \Yitnesses:

the weighted lever and switch when a train GEO. '1. PINCKNEY,

trails from a different direction from that \VILLIAM G. MOTT. 

